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Everyday Ageism

anyone else fed up with

(87 Posts)
flaxwoven Sun 26-Feb-17 08:14:31

I'm in my 60's and grew up with inches, feet, yards, miles, pounds and ounces, pints, temperature 98.4, also £, shillings and pence and so on. I still hate grams and litres, and no idea at all about kilometres - I think in miles. When I go to the butcher I ask for a pound of mince and he knows exactly what I mean. Perhaps I'm just refusing to move with the times. Anyone else feel the same?

grandtanteJE65 Thu 10-Sep-20 15:39:54

I'm bilingual, so I grew up with both systems.

Strangely enough, I tend to think imperial when measuring space in the house, and metric all the rest of the time.

Sallywally1 Wed 26-Aug-20 18:43:14

I’m the same! I can picture 2 ozs of butter for example, cannot work out kilometres and ask the butcher for meat in pounds! I should really change and go for the metric versions I suppose. My OH who is my age has no problems with the metric system and cannot understand why I find it difficult. I have some old fashioned kitchen scales and have both metric and imperial weights. Funnily enough I had no problems going decimal when the money was changed!

varian Sat 25-Jan-20 18:31:10

The construction industry in the UK has, in principle, been metricated for about fifty years. Architect's drawings have metric dimensions but in practice a mixture of metric and imperial measures are used. It is quite common to hear a builder ask for "10 metres of the 4x2", meaning 4 inch by 2 inch timber.

M0nica Sat 25-Jan-20 17:44:21

I still instinctively think and cook in imperial, but I know all the conversion figures so move between the two as and when required

Today I let down some curtains. It was exactly 5cms, so that is what I used. In imperial measures it was just a bit over 2 inches, so metric was easier.

Why not just down load some conversion factors from the internet and memorise them? It is no worse than learning tables or remembering a pin number

10 cm = 4 inches
30 cm = 1 foot
1 metre = 40 inches

1 kilo = 2.25 lbs
1 litre = 1.75 pints

Once you get the basics it is easy to interpolate any in between figures when converting.

For those wanting to know the history visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_metric_system

The French were the first country to adopt the metric system in 1799.

bestfantassy Sat 25-Jan-20 09:28:50

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Elegran Mon 20-Jan-20 09:24:59

I survived the transition to decimal with the help of a couple of mnemonics. Five and ten and twenty-one, winter, spring, and summer sun (and 30 is a heat wave) A litre of water's a pint and three-quarters.

I use either one or the other, depending on the context. Baking cakes is still by imperial measures, as most of my well-tried recipes start with 8 oz flour. I have acceptedat last that a tablespoon is 15 mls and a teaspoon 5 mils. However, baking bread with my Panasonic breadmaker (bless it) is in metric, because that is how their recipes are. Thank goodness my scales can switch from one to the other.

My height and weight are imperial, my shoe size is metric, my clothes are some of each. New babies are born imperial, whatever they become at school later. Miles travelled are imperial, but fabric is bought by the metre, though its width is in peculiar numbers of centimeters, which must reflect the width in inches.

BlueBelle Mon 20-Jan-20 08:48:45

It’s because we did the change reluctantly bit by bit if we d have had a complete cut off we would have all got used to it but even establishments make it confusing you go to the pub for a pint or a half, you buy a bottle of a pop as a litre
You travel a mile but buy your petrol in litres
Most of us measure ourselves in feet and inches, lbs and ounces but the doctors check you in meters and kilos
When I got a card saying welcome to our baby 3k 2g I had a shock as I thought it had been born 3lbs 2 oz and had to read it again to realise it wasn’t a tiny prem baby
The reason we are all used to decimal money is because we had to be when our old currency disappeared
I know 20C is getting warm and 30 is hot that’s about my limited knowledge

Hetty58 Mon 20-Jan-20 08:21:36

I'm 66 so grew up with imperial, then taught in metric - and still tend to convert but use both equally.

When we 'went decimal' I worked in a library. I was amazed (being just a teenager) by the flood of panicked old folk coming in to ask how much something was in 'real money'!

I made a poster conversion chart - having answered them hundreds of times. It was as if they'd had no warning and were totally unprepared!

mltomg Mon 20-Jan-20 07:54:48

One milliliter (British spelling: millilitre) (ml) is 1/one thousand of a liter and is a unit of quantity. 1 milligram (mg) is 1/1000 of a gram and is a unit of mass/weight. This means that we require a further piece of statistics a good way to be capable of convert the dimension throughout. www.mathauditor.com/ml-to-mg.html That greater piece of facts is a density or awareness of the substance you are using (the density of every substance is one-of-a-kind).

Nelliemoser Wed 28-Feb-18 23:27:53

The internet has no end of metric conversion charts.

www.thecalculatorsite.com/conversions/common/kg-to-stones-pounds.php

Yorkshiregel Wed 28-Feb-18 09:02:18

My MIL refused to change too! Good for her. Stick to what you know. I expect the younger generation will still use the metric measurements even if we are going to exit the EU.

Yorkshiregel Wed 28-Feb-18 08:58:26

I go with the flow, but I think in lbs and oz and I use feet and inches. The younger generation are the ones who need to panic now. Maybe after Brexit we will be reverting back? :-)

Jeanniejoo Tue 27-Feb-18 18:09:15

I'm so glad to see most of you use imperial measurements. I lived out of the UK for 40 years and we always used the 'old' measurements before I left and when I returned in 2005. Even bought a book of metric conversion. I wish we could go back to the 'old' way. I thought I was the odd one out!

hereshoping Tue 28-Feb-17 09:50:43

Clothing sizes are a mystery, not only because of metric but sizes seem to have increased.
There was a lady in the newspaper recently complaining to a shop that she was a size 12, but that their size 12 was too small for her.
She had a 37" bust, sorry but in my day a a size 12 was a 34" bust, no wonder the dress didn't fit.

W11girl Mon 27-Feb-17 17:53:36

YES, I do!! I dont really care about moving with the times...I move with them when I need to.. I'happy as I am. I wonder when we finally BREXIT will we resume pounds and ounces etc.

Katek Mon 27-Feb-17 10:54:10

The entire UK oil & gas industry still works in imperial. I believe this is because in the early days a lot of equipment and tooling came from the US.

DeeWBW Mon 27-Feb-17 09:58:26

I agree totally. I still say pounds, ounces, inches and feet and will continue to do so forever. Let's hope that we can hang onto them, eh? We're British first and kilos, grams, meters and centimeters just don't cut the mustard.

Ilovecheese Sun 26-Feb-17 20:34:16

Metric for everything except babies and patchwork. When I worked in the clothing industry, the measurements were all metric but the garments were ordered and sold by the dozen

NfkDumpling Sun 26-Feb-17 20:21:14

Our DS is a carpenter (born 1977) and he works in metric for big measurements but imperial for anything under one centimetre. I find I slip from metric to imperial now depending who I'm with, but still think in imperial.

meandashy Sun 26-Feb-17 20:07:52

I was born in the 70s & do everything the old way except temperature...... I've no clue if it's not in Celsius!

Legs55 Sun 26-Feb-17 19:36:20

phoenix I too live in rural Devon & was brought up in rural Yorkshire, yes distance is measured in time not miles for most of my journeys, depending on time of day, market day etc miles mean nothinggrin

I'm only 61 but still work mostly in Imperial measures, my DGS who is nearly 7, when he was born weight was give in pounds & ounces. Height, weight have to be Imperial.

Prefer Farenheit to Centigrade. Travel in miles & although petrol is in litres I do convert to gallons, 4.5 litres = 1 gallon. Buy meat in pounds, my scales have both so it's not a problem with recipes.confused

Yorkshiregel Sun 26-Feb-17 18:38:50

Guess what!

www.theshovel.com.au/2014/03/25/australia-to-reinstate-imperial-measurement-system/

Yorkshiregel Sun 26-Feb-17 18:32:52

You might find this interesting:

www.joeydevilla.com/2008/08/13/countries-that-dont-use-the-metric-system/

Yorkshiregel Sun 26-Feb-17 18:25:36

Here is something to help dieters.

www.thecalculatorsite.com/conversions/charts/kg-to-stones-pounds-table.php

Yorkshiregel Sun 26-Feb-17 18:23:26

Had to smile at this because my MIL refused to go metric! She said she was too old to change.

Maybe we will change back after BREXIT but I doubt it. The youngsters today, including my GCh know nothing else do they.